Broken Dawn
by EWriting
Summary: When English teacher Bella Swan returns to Forks with her 9yo daughter, Alice, after a bitter divorce, she's only looking for a place to rebuild her life.  Romance is not on her agenda.  ER doctor Edward Cullen might have other plans. AU.  Human.  BPOV
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

It was very late by the time Alice and I finally arrived at Charlie's.

I'd planned to be here a lot earlier but our flight had been delayed because of bad weather and the drive from Seattle had been a long one, over dark roads made slick by the earlier rain. I felt exhausted as I pulled into the driveway, my eyes gritty and my nerves strained. I'd been running on adrenaline and caffeine for too long and now, as I stepped out of the car and took a deep breath, letting the moist night air into my lungs, all the emotions I'd been working so hard to repress threatened my composure.

Somehow, this wasn't how I had imagined myself returning to Forks, Washington.

Divorced, thirty-six year old single mother, living in her late father's home in a town known primarily for its meteorological gloominess.

Frankly, I'd never really imagined myself returning at all.

Then again, it was still hard to accept that Charlie was gone, so clearly my faith in my imaginings needed serious re-evaluation.

It wasn't that he'd been a regular presence in my life. Growing up, I'd lived with Renee most of the time. But I'd spent my summers here and Charlie had always stayed in touch. Cards on my birthday, a call on the holidays. A three year subscription to _Junior Angler_ the year I'd turned ten. He'd been a constant in my life, a man of few words to be sure, but always proud of me, always there for me when I'd needed a respite from Renee and her loving but slightly off-kilter world view.

He'd retired from the force in February. Fifty-five, he'd taken a buyout that the county had offered and set about planning his retirement. From what he'd told me on the phone when we'd talked, his plans had consisted of fishing, more fishing and for a change of pace, angling. The irony was, the fishing season in Washington state was still two weeks away from opening when he'd collapsed at his friend Billy Black's, the victim of a massive cardiac arrest. They'd called 911 and the paramedics had worked on him all the way to the hospital but in the end, there'd been nothing they could do. He'd never even gotten to drop a line in the water.

His heart just gave out.

I'd gotten the call from the hospital the same day the final divorce decree was delivered via special courier to the townhouse I'd moved into with Alice after Jasper and I split up. All in all, not a date I planned on celebrating on an annual basis.

I'd flown out for the memorial, reluctantly leaving Alice with Jasper in Atlanta. I had custody; he had visitation, two weekends a month and every other Christmas. I hadn't asked if Lauren would be there with them, living in our old house, sleeping in our old bed. I already knew the answer to that question and there was no point in pouring salt in wounds that were just starting to heal.

Renee and Phil had come from Florida, too and even though my mom could drive me crazy at times, she'd been a rock throughout the whole ordeal. She'd talked to the minister and picked out the hymns and arranged for the flowers to be delivered to the funeral home. The funeral had been standing room only and I'd lost count of the number of people who'd come up to me at the reception afterwards to tell me how much they'd admired Charlie and how much he was going to be missed.

For a man of few words, he'd touched a lot of lives, usually for the better.

I missed him terribly.

I opened the car door and looked at my daughter, sleeping in the backseat. She'd finally fallen asleep just outside of Port Angeles and now she was bent over, her slender neck canted at an impossible angle, her mouth open slightly as she snored.

"Sweetheart," I whispered, shaking her shoulder lightly. Alice's only response was a soft grunt. She was out like a light. I leaned in, struggling to undo the seatbelt, which was stretched tightly across her boneless, comatose body. I shook her again. "Alice? We're here. Wake up." She blinked and yawned wide, rubbing her eyes.

"Mom?"

"Come on, Ally," I said gently, helping her from the car. I picked up my purse and slung it over my shoulder. I locked the car and ferried her towards the house. She stumbled, her sandals catching in the gravel path. I caught her, barely.

Like mother, like daughter when it came to coordination.

She'd inherited my eyes, my dark hair, my pale complexion. My love of the written word. And my ability to fall on my face on a perfectly flat, perfectly solid surface. As a result, when her kindergarten class had been learning their telephone numbers as part of their "Me and My Community" unit, she'd been the only one in the class who'd also memorized the name and policy number of our health insurance provider.

We stood on the porch together, Alice swaying a little, groggy and a little bit cranky at being woken so unceremoniously. I scrambled in my purse, searching for the manila envelope Charlie's solicitors had mailed to me. I found it and ripped it open.

The keys dropped into my hand and more by feel than sight, since the porch lights were off and the streetlights' weak orange glow barely reached beneath the overhang, I slotted them into the deadbolt. It turned and we walked into the house.

It was musty, with that close, airless smell that houses get when they're locked up for any length of time. I switched on the light in the kitchen and we both blinked a little, our eyes adjusting.

There was a note on the counter. It was from Leah and Jacob Black, Billy's son and daughter-in-law. I scanned Leah's neat handwriting. They'd been by and stocked the fridge with perishables and made up the beds in anticipation of our arrival. They wanted me to call when we got in. Billy sent his love. Sue did, too. They'd stop by tomorrow and help us unpack. The note was cheerful and loving and full of unspoken concern for me and Alice. It made me tear up involuntarily.

I sighed. The moving truck was scheduled to arrive at 9am. It had travelled west ahead of us; we'd followed in the plane.

"Come on, sweetheart," I urged, leading Alice towards the stairs. She shuffled towards my old room with heavy feet. For once, I didn't insist on teeth or washing up. There are nights to do battle and there are nights when you just have to concede. Tonight was definitely one of the latter.

Alice kicked off her sandals and flopped into bed, her lashes dark against her cheeks. She was asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow, winnowing down into the bed like a small mole. Even as a baby, she'd slept like that, the blankets twisted around her like a strange, fabric burrow. I pulled the quilt over her, knowing that no matter how smoothly it lay now, it would be a tangled, chaotic mess by morning and slipped out of the room to the linen closet at the top of the stairs.

I gathered some sheets, a spare pillow and a blanket and headed back downstairs.

The house only had two bedrooms. My room – Alice's room, now – and Charlie's. Tomorrow, I'd have to figure out what to do with it, how I would handle moving his things out and my things in.

But not tonight.

Tonight, all I wanted to do was curl up on the sofa in the living room and snatch a few hours sleep, before I had to begin the gargantuan task of rebuilding my life from scratch.


	2. Chapter 2

I woke up to the sound of a piercing beeper. _Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep._

For a moment, my face mashed against the corduroy couch fabric, bright morning sun in my eyes, I couldn't remember where I was.

I hadn't been sleeping well. Usually, I'd fall asleep only to wake up a few hours later. Two a.m. is not a high point in the TV programming schedule, so I'd pick up a book and read, trying to relax and snatch at least a couple of hours of sleep before Alice got up and the whole cycle of work and kid and life after divorce started again.

Chronic insomnia, brought about by stress, was the doctor's diagnosis. I'm sure he was right. But even knowing the cause didn't help and I turned down his offer of a medicated solution, not wanting to find out what Jasper's lawyers would make of a 'dependence on prescription medication.' The doctor's drug-free suggestions – reduce stress, a calming bedtime routine, cut out caffeine, exercise regularly – would have been laughable if it hadn't been meant kindly. I'd had a hard time doing any of those things when I was still married.

The chances of doing it mid-divorce?

Well, let's just say that if I'd bought stock in under eye concealer before Jasper and I had broken up, I would have been able to tell him to stuff his child support payments. The dividends would have kept Alice and I in easy street for life.

Sadly, hindsight is twenty-twenty.

And that applied to more than just my investment choices, frankly.

But for the first time in months, it appeared I had actually slept the entire night through. No wonder I was so disoriented. The beeping had stopped, only to be replaced by knocking at the front door.

Alice came downstairs, her short pixie hair askew, her clothing from yesterday dishevelled.

"Mom? Is that our stuff?" She tugged at her t-shirt, trying to smooth out the wrinkles. Alice is meticulous that way and the fact that she wasn't having much success made her mouth tip down. She got that from her father, who never met a clothes brush he didn't love.

_The movers. _ I shot upright, the blankets slipping into an untidy heap on the living room floor. I wiped my sleep-dry mouth with my sleeve and hurried to the front door. I tripped over the mat in the entranceway. I need two, and sometimes three, cups of coffee before I can even fake equilibrium. Facing the day cold, I'd been known to take multiple innocent bystanders down with me. The movers were going to have to be on their toes or risk the consequences.

They were waiting on the front step when I opened the door. "Mrs. Hale?" the one with the clipboard asked. He looked about twelve and his co-worked a couple of years younger. The embroidery on his overalls told me his name was Stephen.

"Swan," I corrected automatically. "It's Swan. I took back my maiden –" The look on his face stopped me. Clearly, this wasn't the first move precipitated by a divorce he'd been involved in and his eyes spoke of his disinterestedness in the whole business. He was being paid to move my furniture, not listen to my life story. I shut up and tugged surreptitiously at my pony-tail which had worked its way loose overnight. Dragged backwards through a bush has never been a good look for me.

"I need you sign here and here," he said, flipping through the paperwork. I took the pen, ready to scrawl my name but before I could sign anything I saw Jasper's signature and stopped. He'd paid for the removal van, so of course he would have signed the paperwork, but I was surprised by how much it hurt. This was it. The last time we'd sign anything together as a couple. Our marriage – all ten years, four months and two weeks of it – really was over.

I'd uprooted my daughter and moved halfway across the country. I'd left my job and my friends – although there were fewer of those than I might have thought, once I learned that most of them had known of the affair and said nothing, for fear of angering Lauren Mallory and risking her not inconsiderable wrath – and everything that Alice had grown up with and come here, to Forks, just for a chance to start over.

Chewing my lip, I forced myself to sign my name over and over.

_Isabella Marie Swan. Isabella Marie Swan. Isabella Marie Swan._

I'd finished marking my name for the final time when a large maroon minivan pulled in and parked behind my rental car. The driver's door opened and out stepped my friend, Jacob.

"Bells!" he bellowed and I laughed. Jake wasn't a big fan of subtlety. He tended to do everything at 100 m.p.h and 120 dB. Probably why he'd raced motorcycles on the semi-pro circuit for a while after high school. His idea of a good time, he claimed. Definitely not mine. From the other side of the van, Leah got out and waved more sedately before pulling open the sliding door, and starting to prepare the wheelchair lift.

Jake jogged up to the house and enveloped me in an enormous hug. He was huge. Like over six foot seven huge so it was on the bear crushing an ant scale, size wise, but it still felt like coming home. I wrapped my arms around him as tightly as I could and squeezed. He seemed to understand how I was feeling because he just hugged me even harder. If he noticed any dampness on his shirt, he was too kind to mention it.

"Uncle Jake!" Alice cried, dancing on her tiptoes with excitement. We broke apart, me wiping my eyes surreptitiously and Jake turned to the house, an enormous grin on his handsome face.

"How's my favourite girl?"

"I'm good!" she said. "I flew in an airplane yesterday and the stewardess let me eat all the peanuts I wanted and then they lost Mommy's bag and she said a _really_ rude word and we drove all night long to get here and Daddy –"

As though she suddenly realized what she'd said, her voice stopped and her lower lip quivered just a little. Jake hoisted her up effortlessly and she buried her face in his shoulder.

"It's good to see you, too, Pipsqueak." Alice nodded and then she mumbled something that sounded like A_lligators cannon ice no Hanoi? _but I guessed it was really "I'll tell you later. Can I go see Noah now?" She didn't mention Jasper much to me and while I did my best not to let my anger at his betrayal show, and to speak about him in neutral terms, Alice was more aware than I would like her to be about my feelings towards him.

It broke my heart and I'd thought about slugging him in his handsome jaw more than once. If I didn't think I'd break every finger in my hand doing, I might have. The satisfaction of seeing his supercilious face with a big ugly bruise would have made a cast completely worth it.

Jake nodded, putting an end to my bloodthirsty revenge plans. "Sure thing. Leah's just getting his chair out of the van. Run down and say 'hi'. He's been dying to see you."

Noah was six months younger than Alice. She'd been born in February, he'd been born at the end of August.

Leah'd had a hard time of it during the delivery and by the time Noah finally arrived, the complications meant he'd been severely oxygen deprived. The first couple of weeks had been the worst. Jake and Leah hadn't known if he'd make it or not and Charlie had told me they'd spent every hour of that horrible time at the NICU in Port Angeles, never leaving his incubator for a moment, cradling him and encouraging him and willing him to pull through. But he was a Black and as Billy had always boasted, tough as old shoe leather. But his survival hadn't been without a price.

He couldn't talk or walk and because of the cerebral palsy, he was confined much of the time to his electric wheelchair. But he had a wonderful disposition and loved to laugh and his smile would melt your heart faster than anything. Jake was particularly fantastic with him. He had endless patience and watching Leah and Jake and Noah together, you knew what love looked like. It was tangible.

Alice scampered off, calling her greetings to Leah and leaping around Noah's chair while he wriggled and laughed and twisted around to follow her antics.

"Where do you want your things?"

I followed the movers to the van. "Everything's labelled." I pointed to the boxes. "There's not a lot of furniture. It's mostly personal items. Clothes. Books. That sort of thing. I'll show you the which rooms are which."

For a woman moving across the country, I hadn't moved a lot of stuff. Jasper had kept the house and most of the furniture. I didn't mind. I'd never liked the house – one of those ridiculously big new homes that had sprung up around Atlanta in the last decade or so, on a so-called 'estate-sized lot' – or the furniture. We'd hired a decorator and she'd done the house top to bottom in a distressed French country style – expensive furniture made to look really old and worn out, in other words. There was a reason I taught high school English and not interior design. I didn't get stuff like that.

In return for keeping the house and other shared marital property, and on top of the child support he paid for Alice, he'd also paid me a fair settlement amount. When I'd left after learning of his affair, I'd moved into a ready-furnished town home. Charlie'd paid the house in Forks off years ago and since it was already furnished, I hadn't bothered with much else in the way of furniture. A bookcase that had been my Grandma Swan's. A couple of armchairs. Alice's bedroom furniture. That was about it. Anything else I needed, I figured I buy here.

A fresh start.

Stephen and his partner began hauling the boxes down the ramp. Leah and the kids and I came inside the house while Jake helped with the boxes, too.

Leah had brought groceries and we worked together, putting them away. As I opened cupboards and drawers, I was surprised at how pristine everything was. Charlie was many things but a meticulous housekeeper he was not.

"When we knew you were coming back, Sue and some of the other women came in and cleaned the house from top to bottom. Debbie Peters, she worked dispatch with your Dad. Mrs. Webber, the minister's wife. A couple of other women from the reserve. And Jake's been coming by to cut the grass once a week."

"You didn't have to."

Leah smiled and began to put away the boxes of cereal. "We wanted to. Honestly." She paused and looked down at the sugar bowl on the table. It was the one I'd made one Father's Day for Charlie. I forgot how old I was, when Renee signed me up for the pottery class. Eleven. Twelve, maybe. One lumpy, misshapen coil pot with an ill-fitting lid and wavering green glaze was the sum total of my output but Charlie had kept it all these years. "We packed away Charlie's things, too. The things that were in his bedroom, I mean, so there'd be room for your things in the closet. They're in the basement."

I froze and she met my eyes. "We didn't get rid of anything. It's all there. His clothes. His fishing gear. His personal belongings. But Mom remembered how hard it was, doing that herself when Dad died." I remembered that Leah and her brother Seth had lost their father, Harry Clearwater, when they were both in high school. They knew what it felt like to lose a parent. "She wanted to make it easier for you so that when you're ready to make some decisions about what you want to keep and what you want to donate, it won't be so hard. Are you OK with that?"

I had to speak around the lump in my throat. "Yeah. I appreciate that."

The kids had been amusing themselves in the living room while we worked in the kitchen. Alice had been reading to Noah but she drifted into the kitchen, pushing his chair carefully into the room. She set the brakes like Leah had taught her and came up to where I was standing by the fridge.

"Mom, I'm hungry." I could hardly fault her for complaining. It was after ten o'clock and neither of us had eaten breakfast yet. I rummaged in the fridge and came out with some yogurt and fresh fruit. I poured us both a glass of juice and balanced a box of store-made muffins under my arm. The guys were still trooping back and forth, taking boxes and depositing them everywhere.

"We'll eat at the picnic table, OK?" We carried our food outside. Jake stopped carrying boxes long enough to lift Noah's chair off the step and onto the grass, then the kids, Leah and I went around to the backyard. It was still cool, since the woods abutted the lawn and the sun wasn't really high enough yet to have an impact. But the breeze was pleasant and the air smelt fresh after last night's rain. I'd forgotten how green everything was around here.

Alice wolfed her breakfast down like she hadn't been fed in a couple of years. Honestly, she's the tiniest little thing, and looks like a puff of wind would blow her away but she's got the metabolism of a race horse and eats like a wide receiver at training camp. She raced away to the tire swing and scrambled on. Charlie had hung it for her three summers ago, when she'd come out for a visit. She'd wanted Jasper to hang one at our house but he'd refused. Apparently the homeowner's association had had rules about those sorts of things.

"Be careful, honey," I called, more out of habit than because I was worried, stretching out at the picnic table and taking another bite of my muffin. It wasn't as good as homemade but it wasn't bad. "Remember not to get to crazy around Noah's chair."

She rolled her eyes as the tire made wider and wider arcs, rotating her body to increase its motion. "Mo-oom!"

I grinned and she laughed. It was a good sound to hear. She hadn't laughed a lot since Jasper and I had parted ways.

She was still laughing when the rope on the tire swing snapped and she flew through the air like an untethered balloon. She looked surprisingly graceful airborne.

The sound her arm made when it hit the ground, shattering on contact, was anything but.

**Hope you're enjoying the story so far. Poor Alice has to suffer for a bit but where there's an emergency, there are handsome emergency room doctors with clear green eyes and messy hair, so I hope it'll be worth it in the end… **


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

We ended up waiting at the hospital for over four hours before Alice was finally seen by a doctor.

The hospital in Forks was small. A couple of operating rooms, a maternity wing, the emergency department and a day unit.

Jake drove us to the hospital in his van while Leah stayed behind with the movers and Noah. I'd sat in the back with Alice, trying to keep us both calm. I'd splinted her wrist and wrapped it gently. She'd complained about the ice bag but I insisted. A veteran of many a calamity myself, I was glad Charlie had kept up the practice of keeping a fully stocked first aid kit under the sink.

Jake had offered to stay with us but I'd insisted we were fine on our own. Now, we were waiting in one of the small assessment rooms for the doctor to come and tell us the results of the x-rays. Alice way lying on the hospital bed, wearing a garish cartoon print gown over her shorts. I think she was more upset by that fashion faux-pas than the actual breaking of her bones.

"It hurts, Mommy," she said, gesturing at her arm, propped on a pillow. She'd been a trooper during the whole ordeal but what nine year old wants to spend the whole summer with her arm in a cast?

I smoothed back her hair and kissed her forehead. "I know, sweetheart." I had a thought. "How about I read to you? I've got "The Hobbit" in my purse."

Alice smiled wanly. "We were just getting to the big spiders."

"That's right," I encouraged her. She scooted sideways and patted the bed. I hesitated, not wanting to risk jostling her spint, but when I saw her face fall, I relented. Slipping off my shoes, I climbed up beside her, mindful of her broken wrist. She leaned against me and I opened the book, slipping out the bookmark that marked our progress and tucking it in the back.

Soon, we were both lost in Mirkwood, skulking with Bilbo as he schemed to rescue the hapless dwarves from the venomous spiders. I mimicked the hobbit's voice as he taunted the giant beasts.

"_Old fat spider spinning in a tree! Old fat spider can't see me! Attercop! Attercop! Won't you stop? Stop your spinning and look for me!"_

Alice and I had gotten so engrossed in the story, I barely registered the sound of the door opening or the pastel curtains being pulled back from the hospital bed.

I looked up, ready to complain about the long wait my daughter had had to endure, and for the first time in my life, words escaped me entirely and the book thudded to the floor.

He was the most gorgeous man I'd ever seen.

Tall and lean, he made the olive green scrubs he was wearing look like a custom suit. His hair was messy, like he ran his fingers through it whenever he was frustrated, with these auburn tints that glinted under the examination room lights. And his eyes were green. Really, really green. Not hazel, with the odd fleck but honest to goodness green.

His face was like something out of an old Master's painting. Straight nose, high cheeks. A strong jaw with just a hint of stubble. And his lips?

_Full._

_ Kissable._

I felt mortified. I swung my legs of the bed so quickly that I stumbled on the tile. He caught my arm and my face burned.

"Let's keep things to one patient at a time?" His voice when he spoke was deep, with a hint of a mid-Western accent that marked him as a transplant to Forks. He sounded amused at my klutziness. Thank God he didn't know its real cause. He bent down and picked up the soft covered book, setting it on the bedside table. "I'm Dr. Cullen. Edward Cullen. I'm sorry for the wait. I'm here to set your daughter's arm."

"I'm sorry," I blathered, still reeling from feelings I hadn't experienced in years. By the end of our relationship, Jasper and I hadn't been in the mood for civil conversation, let alone anything more intimate. But if I was being honest, it had been a couple of years before that since we'd had anything approaching a healthy sex life. Fine time for my hormones to jump up and do some sort of weird tango. "I was just reading to my daughter, to take her mind off things. I didn't hear you come in and –"

I was grateful when he turned to Alice. Those green eyes made it hard to think straight. He gently lifted her hand from its resting place. "You can never go wrong with Tolkien," he said, smiling at her as he evaluated her fingers carefully. "Have you read it before?"

"No," she admitting, wincing as he extended his examination to her wrist itself. "But Mom and I both like to read a lot."

"Wait 'til you get to Smaug," he suggested as he finished up his inspection. "He's really ferocious." He picked up a file folder he'd set on the end of the bed and walked over to the x-ray display. He hung the films in place. Even I could see the break – the jagged and abrupt way the bones had ruptured. I felt a little queasy and tried not to faint. Alice needed me to be strong, not unconscious.

"As you can see," he said, pointing to the damage, "Your wrist is definitely looking a little the worse for wear. You're going to have to wear a cast for at least eight weeks."

Alice frowned. "Really? That long? Why can't I just wear a bandage for a while? I promise I won't move it too much."

"I'm sorry," he said with an understanding smile. "I know it's not a lot of fun, but if we don't set it now, in the future, you could have a lot of trouble using your hand the way it was meant to."

"It's alright," she said, squaring her thin shoulders bravely. "I can handle it."

He nodded his approval and walked over to a drawer. He began to take out all of the things he would need to bandage Alice's wrist. "Pink, purple or white?" he asked, holding up the bandages.

Alice, being Alice, considered the offerings carefully. "Pink, I think." He set the others away and came back to her bedside. "Purple was more popular last season."

He chuckled. "I've heard many reasons for people's choices in my time as a doctor, but I will admit that's the first time anyone's ever given that one." Carefully, he snipped a small hole in the stocking and slipped it over Alice's hand.

Alice smiled. "Do you like to read, too, Dr. Cullen?"

"I do but if even more than reading, I love music," he said, glancing up from his work. "I have a pretty big collection. Very eclectic. Howlin' Wolf. Debussy. Bob Dylan. "

"Who?" Alice wrinkled her nose.

"Quite a bit before your time," he said with an ironic quirk of his mouth. He caught my eye and I wanted to sink through the floor. I've never been big in the vanity stakes. I'm small and dark and while I scrub up OK, most of the time I can't be bothered. But standing in front of this glorious man, I was blisteringly aware of the fact that I hadn't showered in two days, or brushed my teeth and that I'd slept in my clothes.

Humiliated, I kept my eyes fixed on the floor, only looking up when he called my name. Alice squeezed my hand to get my attention.

"Mom, I'm all done," she said. "Look!" She waved the bright pink cast, surprisingly at ease with the bulky shape already. "And Dr. Cullen says it's OK if I want to accessorize it. What do you think if I added some crystals?"

I made myself smile. "Crystals would be very…interesting." I handed Alice her clothes. "I'll help you get dressed and then –"

"I can do it myself," my daughter objected. "I'm nine. I've been dressing myself for like, five years now."

"If you're sure," I said as Alice shooed me from the curtains. She pulled them closed with her good hand, leaving the doctor and I alone.

"Ms. Swan?" At the sound of his voice, I looked up and tried not to blush when I saw how carefully he was scrutinizing me. It was no use. He was so out of my league, it was laughable. Besides, there was doubtless a Mrs. Cullen – someone tall and gorgeous, who was always on top of her life. Maybe even a few mini-Cullens, running around. He was certainly great with kids.

"I had a look at your daughter's file," he said gently. "This isn't the first time your duaghter's been involved in an accident, is it? Stitches. A concussion. A broken toe."

His green eyes were fixed on my face. His voice seemed kind but I could imagine what he was thinking. I felt compelled to justify myself. "I know it sounds like a lot but I assure you, she's just accident prone. And she was with her father on a trip to the Georgia aquarium when she got the concussion. She hit her head and they took her to the hospital. MRI. CAT scan. And she broke her toe at school –"

I was babbling. A stream of words kept pouring out of me, like if only I could say enough words, he wouldn't judge me a bad parent. I was well able to do that all by myself.

"Ms. Swan," he said again, touching my arm softly. My throat seized and I couldn't think of anything else to say. "I wasn't accusing you of anything. It's obvious that Alice has always received excellent care and that her injuries are consistent with accidents. I just wanted to make sure you were comfortable looking after Alice's injury and knew what to expect, since you've had some prior experience."

"Oh."

"How are you getting home?" he asked, glancing down at his clipboard. I was grateful for his tact. "You live in Forks."

I hadn't thought that far ahead. Jake had dropped us off and I'm sure he would come and get us but it was a good twenty minutes from the reservation to the hospital and he'd already spent the day supervising my move. I couldn't take advantage of his friendship like that.

I waved what I hoped was a casual hand. "I can call a taxi."

"You live in Forks," he repeated wryly. "Might take a while to get one."

_Well, duh, Bella. You aren't in Atlanta any more_.

"Can I make a suggestion? My shift finishes in about five minutes. If you don't mind waiting for me, I can drop you off at your place."

My mouth dropped. "No. No. I couldn't possibly accept," I protested. "You've done enough and we'll be fine. I can arrange for someone to pick us up."

"I don't mind," he persisted. "You and Alice have had a tough day and Chief Swan was a good man. I'd like to think that if the situation was reversed, he'd do the same thing for my family."

Well, that answered my question.He had a family. He _was _married. I had to fight against a ridiculous wave of disappointment. But how could I be let down? It was all in my tangled, sleep-deprived head.

"Thank you," I said as graciously as I could. "That would be very kind of you."


	4. Chapter 4

Dr. Cullen didn't keep us waiting for long.

He came out of the staff room, wearing jeans, worn white and soft from long wear and a faded polo shirt, the sleeves shoved up to his elbows, only a few minutes after he'd gone inside. I liked the fact that he wasn't preoccupied with his appearance. He moved with an easy grace, looping a battered messenger bag over one shoulder, as he came to a stop in front of us.

Jasper'd always fussed. With his hair. With his clothes. Afraid of stray flecks of lint and shedding animals and messy kids.

Edward looked like the kind of guy who was comfortable in his own skin, gorgeous as it was, and entirely OK with wearing the first clean clothes that came to hand. With his looks, a modelling career or a star on the Hollywood walk of fame wouldn't have been out of the realm of possibility but he honestly seemed totally unaware of his appeal.

"Ready?" he asked. "I have to drop off a couple of requisition forms at the nursing station before I go but it won't take long." He gestured down the hall and we fell in beside him, Alice chattering to him nineteen to the dozen. He moderated his long stride so Alice wouldn't have to hurry to keep up. I was touched by his instinctive kindness.

Maybe the caring, selfless man of medicine was all a front but as I made my way through the antiseptic halls of the tiny hospital, Alice's uninjured hand in mine, I counted three nurses, two patients and at least two other female doctors checking him out. Knowing I wasn't the only one who found him so irresistible made me feel slightly better about myself but then I'd start thinking about the odds and competition and only succeeded in casting me back down into my self-imposed gloom.

He came to a stop at the desk in the triage area. A pretty nurse, wearing vibrant fuschia scrubs, was behind it. She smiled, her wide blue eyes lighting up. She sat a little straighter, thrusting out her chest and flicking a long strand of blond hair off of her shoulder. Alice and I could have been invisible for all the attention she paid us.

"Hello, Jessica," Edward said. He was rifling through his messenger bag and missed the heated glances she was sending him. He pulled out two forms and handed them across to the nurse.

"I want the lab to do a work up on this patient," he said. "I'm worried. Something seems off but I haven't been able to pin a specific culprit down yet. I've indicated which tests I'd like them to run. You'll need to ask Sheila or Gary to draw the blood."

"Of course, Dr. Cullen," she vowed in a breathy voice. "I'll make sure they go to the front of the line."

He frowned a little. "There's no need for that. Just have them ready for me when I'm back on rotation tomorrow morning."

Jessica seemed more than a little put out by his business like behaviour. Her eyes flickered towards me for a moment and the corners of her mouth pulled down.

"Can I help you?" It was clear she hoped we'd help her out by disappearing. Preferably right now.

Edward turned, as though remembering our presence for the first time. He looked apologetic. "Sorry, Jessica. They're with me. Jessica Stanley, Bella Swan and Miss Alice Hale."

"The Chief's daughter?" Jessica was suddenly animated but I could tell it wasn't because she wanted to make friends. She just wanted the inside line on the gossip that was no doubt swirling thanks to my recent arrival. She smiled, showing a mouth full of unnaturally white teeth. Alice shrunk into my side, burying her face in my t-shirt. I gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze.

"Yes, that's right," I said, forcing myself to respond politely. "Charlie was my dad."

"And how do you like Forks so far?" she asked. "Must be a change after…where was it you lived again?"

"Atlanta. And yes, it's a change of pace but one I'm looking forward to, actually."

The dubious look on her face told me what she thought of my noncommittal response. Edward was watching the exchange. Perhaps he sensed my frustration at her intrusive questions or maybe he just saw how Alice was drooping but he interjected and put an end to Jessica's prying.

"Thanks for putting that paperwork through for me, Jessica. We're going to head out now. I'm dropping these ladies off at home. Alice has had a tough day." He touched Alice's hair with a gentle hand and she smiled up at him gratefully.

Jessica's face looked thunderous but there was nothing she could say. She contented herself with glaring at me, tapping the papers in her hands straight with unnecessary force.

"Nice to meet you, Betty," she called after us.

I didn't bother correcting her, contenting myself with herding my tired daughter after Edward Cullen instead.

The staff parking lot was small and it didn't take us long to reach his car.

He drove a Volvo. Silver and only a couple of years old from the looks of it. I helped Alice into the back seat, handling her buckle when she couldn't manage it alone. It was a total family car. Definitely not the sort of thing a single guy drove. There were no car seats though, and the upholstery was remarkably clean. No Cheerios, no random stickers, no unidentified sticky stains. Maybe he and his wife didn't have kids yet. Or perhaps this was his vehicle for work and the children rode in something else. It was a nice car, though and Alice settled in without complaints.

As I slipped into the passenger seat, my cellphone rang, its shrill ring startling me. I'd forgotten I'd had it with me in my purse. I'd turned it off when we'd gone into the treatment room and only turned it on again while we'd waited for Edward to change after his shift. But I hadn't bothered checking for messages and I was startled to see I have eight missed calls and a dozen texts.

"Hello?"

_"Jesus, Izzy! I've been trying to reach you for hours! Where the hell have you been? Is Alice OK? Why the hell didn't you call me?"_

"Jasper?" At the mention of her father, Alice sat up, her dark eyes alert and wary. "What's wrong?"

_"What's wrong? I'll tell you what's wrong! The moving company screwed up my credit card details. I called your father's place to speak to you and that friend of yours – that greasy mechanic, John…"_

"Jake."

_"Whatever. He answers the phone. He tells me Alice has been hurt and you've had to take her to the hospital. What the fuck is up with that? Can't you be trusted to make sure our daughter doesn't hurt herself for longer than one day?"_ He was shouting so loudly, I had to hold the phone away from my ear. I could feel tears, hot and stinging, threatening to spill over but I blinked hard, willing them not to emerge. One or two slipped out despite my best efforts and I could feel Edward's eyes on me, cool and assessing, as I wiped them away with an impatient hand.

"She's alright. She fell out of the swing and broke her arm," I said, trying to keep my tone even. I could hear Alice's ragged breathing from the back seat and I cast her a quick glance, trying to reassure her.

_"She broke her arm?" _Jasper swore again and I flinched unconsciously_. "Fuck me, Izzy. When we agreed on the custody of Alice, I thought I was doing the right thing. But if you're going to let her run around unsupervised, doing whatever fool thing comes into her mind, we might have to revisit the issue. Maybe my mother was right. Maybe she would be better off here, in Atlanta, on a permanent basis. You let her get hurt."_

"I didn't let her get hurt," I shouted, sickened by his threat. The divorce had been finalized. The custody had been settled in my favour. But I wouldn't put it past Jasper – or Jasper's mother – to try and reopen it anyway. The legal fees would be a drop in the bucket to them. I didn't have those kind of resources. Not anymore. "It was an accident, Jasper. An accident."

_"Accidents seem to happen an awful lot around you –" _Jasper's diatribe continued unabated. I wanted to end the call right then and there – my thumb was hovering over the button. All I had to do was press it. But I knew he'd call back so it was best to just let him have his say.

"Give me the phone." Edward's voice was commanding. He stretched out his hand but I gaped at it, not understanding his meaning. "Give me the phone," he said again and this time, I obeyed.

He held it up to his ear. I could see the tendons in his hand, drawn taut, around the device. His face was calm but something told me he was furious despite his controlled facade.

"This is Dr. Edward Cullen," he said in an authoritative tone. "May I ask who I am speaking to?"

A pause, during which time Jasper must have responded because Edward continued. "I'm the doctor who treated your daughter in the emergency room today. Her injury was a straightforward one. Its occurrence was not due to any negligence on your ex-wife's part. Indeed, her swift application of first aid mitigated the damage that might have otherwise occurred. She should be commended, not reprimanded."

He sounded so professional, so calm, as he delivered his set down. He turned his head, as though aware that I was watching him and he gave me a small, crooked smile. My heart stuttered for a moment, beating in an irregular quick step. God, he was gorgeous.

"That's wise," he said in response to whatever Jasper had said. "I've arranged for the billing to go to your insurance provider. If you have any further questions, I suggest you direct them to me." He rattled off his number at the hospital. "Good-bye, Mr. Hale."

Edward hung up and handed me back my phone. "Are you alright?"

I ran a shaky hand through my hair. "Yes. Jasper was just concerned," I said, trying to smile. I wanted to say more. Whatever his failings as a husband, he had always been a good father to Alice. But I couldn't say anything. Not to a man who was a perfect stranger. Not with my daughter in the car.

Something told me Edward knew everything I wanted to say but couldn't. He didn't press though, starting the car up instead and pulling smoothly from the parking lot. He glanced in the rear-view mirror at Alice. "Are you hungry?" he asked. "You've had a tough day. There's a great little diner here in town. They do some mean potato wedges."

She shook her head. "No thank you, Dr. Cullen. I'm not very hungry right now."

"Are you sure? A cheeseburger and a chocolate milkshake always make me feel better when I've had a tough day." He grinned and Alice grinned back. It was a weak smile – not her usual exuberant, impish one – but I was glad to see it all the same.

"I'm sure," Alice said. "I'm pretty tired. I'd kind of like to go home and lie down, if that's OK with you. Mom?"

"Of course, sweetie." I turned back to Edward, ready to direct him, but he was already turning in the direction of Charlie's house. He seemed to have an uncanny ability to know what I was thinking because he answered my unspoken question readily.

"When I first moved to Forks four years ago, Charlie took pity on me. We went fishing a couple of times a year and sometimes, he'd invite me over and we'd watch a game together. We both liked baseball."

"Oh." Somehow, the idea that Edward and my dad had been friends was a comforting one. I couldn't say why that was exactly but I liked to think that it was because Charlie had always been a good judge of character. If he'd thought Edward was someone worth knowing, then he probably was.

I couldn't think of anything else to say, so I simply watched the out the window until he pulled into the driveway behind my rental car. Both Jake and Leah's minivan and the moving van were gone. Edward got out. He was around the front of the car and opening my door before I could move. I froze, utterly unprepared for the chivalrous gesture.

"You go up to the house and unlock the door," he said gently, stooping down a little to look at me. "I'll get Alice." I nodded, undoing my belt and stepping out of his car, my purse clutched tightly to my chest like a talisman. He had already gone around to the other side, and was helping Alice out, his touch solicitous as he guided her across the uneven driveway.

I got the door open and Alice slipped inside immediately, leaving Edward and I standing alone on the porch. I couldn't look him in the eye. "Thank-you," I mumbled. "You really went above and beyond today."

He was so close I could smell his cologne. It was woodsy, a little sharp, with a hint of some undertone my nose couldn't identify. I wanted to take deep, greedy breathes and just drink it in. It was so embarrassing and it served to remind me that I hadn't seen the inside of a shower in more than forty-eight hours. A blush burned across my cheeks.

"Any time, Bella," he said, his melodic voice dropping a little as he spoke and I knew my blush was only growing deeper. I risked a quick glance upwards and was greeted by the sight of his green eyes fixed on my face. His expression was impossible to decipher though. I could almost imagine I saw regret and something else flit across his face but they were gone too quickly for me to be sure. "I'm sure I'll see you around."

He stepped away and a whimper nearly escaped my throat. I kept it in but barely. He loped back to the Volvo and slid behind the wheel. He raised a hand and then backed dexterously out onto the road and drove away. I watched until I couldn't see him anymore and then went inside.

Alice was already asleep on the sofa, snoring softly. Between the crisis and the time change, she was tuckered. I'd have to figure out something for dinner but first, I had to get clean. I draped an afghan across her then rummaged through my suitcase, dragging out the first clothes and underwear I could find. They didn't match but I was past caring.

A long, hot shower did wonders for my outlook. I'd just stepped out and was working a comb through the wet tangles when I heard a knock at the front door. I shoved my arms through the sleeves of my clean top, struggling to get it over my still damp flesh and yanked up a pair of shorts before dashing downstairs in bare feet.

There was a teenager on my front step, holding a fragrant cardboard box. His elderly car had a decal on the driver's side door that announced McMullen's Pizzeria. Charlie would have held his own in any competition for worst cook in history so I was very familiar with the delicious take-out they offered. I simply had no idea why they had come here.

"I'm sorry, but you must have the wrong house." It smelled enticing and my stomach, ignored since this morning's paltry yogurt and muffin, gave an embarrassingly audible rumble.

"You Bella Swan?" the delivery boy asked brusquely.  
>"Yes, but I didn't order a pizza."<p>

He leaned back and peered at the house number. "Well, somebody ordered a supreme pizza with extra cheese and this is the right address and you're Bella Swan so it's your pizza now." He flashed the delivery slip at me and I saw that it was indeed my name and address printed on the order.

I was bewildered. Who would have ordered a pizza for me without telling me they'd done so? My stomach gave another tremendous rumble and I decided I'd worry about the mystery of its delivery later. I was starved. "Hold on," I said. "Let me get my purse. How much do I owe you?"

"It's already been paid for. Dude came in himself, placed the order and paid for it. Even included a tip." From the way he smiled, it must have been a very generous tip.

A suspicion flashed before me. It was almost too incredible to believe but it was the only answer that made any sense. "Can you tell me what the 'dude' who ordered it looked like? Was he tall, reddish-brown hair, jeans and a grey polo shirt?" I didn't bother adding details like green eyes that sparkled like emeralds or a body to make grown women weep. I was pretty sure the high school student in front of me wouldn't have noticed those particular details as much as I had.

He shrugged. "Yeah, that's him. Drives a silver sedan." He handed me the box and I juggled it carefully, trying not to burn my forearms.

_Holy crap_. He really was too good to be true. Edward Cullen had ordered us dinner and paid for it.

Shutting the door, I stumbled back to the kitchen and set the delivery box down, staring at it as though I expected it to explode. Or vibrate. Or do something other than let its scent waft through the room.

After a long moment, I realized there was note, written on the back of a slip of receipt tape, stuck to the top of the box. I tugged it loose and opened it, taking in the strong, slanting handwriting. It reflected his personality perfectly. The note was short and to the point.

_Eat up. Doctor's orders. EAC_

Four words and yet they moved me to tears.

No one had given me such a thoughtful gift.

During my ten years with Jasper, gift giving had been motivated by many things: love and passion in the beginning, a competitive nature that delighted in showing the Jones' just how much money he could spend on his wife and later by guilt, as he'd bought me gaudier and gaudier gifts to make up for his infidelity and our decaying marriage.

But as I opened the greasy cardboard box and the pungent smell of melted cheese and oregano hit me, I could barely see through my tears. A man I'd never met before in my life, who had only seen me at my worst, during a moment of crisis, cared enough, was concerned enough to do something. And so he'd sent me dinner.

It was just a pizza. A supreme pizza with extra cheese from McMullen's Pizzeria.

But I'd never received anything that touched me so much.

I pulled myself together with an effort. "Alice," I shouted out as I grabbed plates from the cupboard and began to set the kitchen table. "Wake up. Dinner is here."

**A/N Thanks to the folks who've reviewed the story thus far. A couple of folks have messaged me to ask if I'll be posting on a regular schedule and the answer is no. I will try to get a chapter done every couple of weeks but certainly not on a daily or weekly schedule. Sorry. It's this darn thing called 'life'. Keeps getting in the way of my hobbies **


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